Coming to from Arthurs Pass YHA. My oh my, have I done some driving since yesterday morning.
Once off the ferry it was a mad rush up the Wairau to get the Branch Valley ridden before dark. Very nice old-school ride. Stayed at Murchison camp ground while a big old southerly came through overnight.
Today I escaped the storm by heading over to the West Coast. Did the Triple Peaks ride (almost). The landowner has put up unfriendly signs, so that one will get the axe in the next edition. Then I got well and truly hammered by 2 hours of river rocks in the Taipo Valley. That ride is 5/10. Would be a lot more fun on a fully.
Have been thinking a lot about my ride-to-drive ratio. I like to keep it well above 1. Touch and go today. With the price of oil and cost of climate change, we'll have to consider whether or not it's responsible for us (as guidebook writers) to be encouraging people to drive for hours to do a 20km ride. Guess it depends a bit on how good the ride is. At the least, I reckon we'll be more explicit about the amount of driving required to do some of the more remote rides. Maybe encourage people to do a bundle of rides on less frequent road trips. Or combine a ride with other business. Wonder what a reasonable fly-to-ride ratio would be? Something to think about.
Pedal on!
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When I lived on the coast, we called weta's "Taipos". Apparently Maori for the "demon grasshopper" . I hope you didnt see any like the ones in King Kong! Jeff
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